Danica Davidson
March 6, 2024 
J-Novel Club has just inked a partnership deal with Yen Press so that Hachette Book Group (which owns Yen Press in a joint venture with Kadokawa Corporation) will begin handling sales and distributing J-Novel physical books in North America. Hachette is a major publisher, one of the top in the country. Meanwhile, Diamond Book Distributors will take care of global distribution. The change with Hachette will start on July 1, 2024.
J-Novel Club might be better known for its many digital releases, and this connection with Hachette does not change how the digital copies are managed.
J-Novel Club explained in a press release:
While all books will be listed for solicitation under Yen Press’s “JNC” imprint and appear in Edelweiss as Yen Press/JNC, on-book branding for titles produced directly by J-Novel Club will continue to feature the full J-Novel Club and J-Novel Heart logos. Titles produced by Yen Press under the “JNC” imprint will continue to use the simplified JNC logo.
Retailers can continue to reach out to J-Novel Club directly for inventory through June. Then inventory will be found at Hachette’s warehouses. New titles coming out in July are available already for preorder.
J-Novel Club gave this description for itself:
J-Novel Club is a digital and physical publishing company started by translators and fans like you! By focusing on digital releases and providing a membership service to let people read our books as they are being translated, our goal is to build a growing community of readers so that more releases can be officially licensed and translated.
With the addition of the J-Novel Heart and J-Novel Pulp imprints, the company hopes to appeal to even more audiences worldwide. Since 2016, J-Novel Club has digitally published over 2,000 volumes and physically printed over 250 volumes of different series for you to enjoy. In 2023. J-Novel Club launched JNC Nina, a subsidiary devoted to releasing light novels in further European languages.
Source: Press release via ANN
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
